Principles and Parables

The Pharisees found comfort in living according to principles. Preaching principles. Holding people to principles. They measured themselves by the checklist. In response, Jesus did not teach principles but taught in parables. He scrapped the checklist and invited us into a story.

And yet tonight, as I prepare my message for this weekend, I find myself reducing the parables of Jesus to...principles. Turning the stories into checklists.

Something about that doesn't settle right with me.